Here's another interesting one from CNN. Does your cat/dog snore and keep you awake? Or have they more devious methods? Fister certainly knows how to keep me from sleeping if he wants to. From whiskers up my nostrils to trying to sit on my head!
If You're Dog Tired, Your Dog May Be Guilty
New House Rule: No Pets on the Bed
Got a cat that sleeps on your head? A dog you're letting out every night? Those needy beasts may be costing you more than they should - in terms of lost sleep, that is.
Dogs and cats, it turns out, are one of the biggest causes of humans' sleep problems. At the Mayo Clinic Sleep Disorders Center, 53% of patients said pets played a big role in their sleep problems; 22% had pets sleeping on the bed with them.
"That's a significant number," says John Shepard, MD, medical director of the Mayo Clinic Sleep Disorders Center.
All kinds of environmental things play havoc with the quality of our sleep - a ticking clock, too much light, high humidity, temperature too cold or too hot - but Shepard tuned into pets after one discussion with a patient. She got up in the middle of the night to let the dog out, waiting up to 15 minutes for the critter.
"After hearing that anecdote, I began to wonder how many of my patients were sleeping with pets and how much the pet interrupted sleep," he says.
In the course of regular checkups, Shepard questioned 300 patients about their pets - asking whether the animals shared the bed. He found that:
• 157 of patients (52%) had one or more pets, largely cats and dogs.
• Nearly 60% allowed pets to sleep in the bedroom.
• Cats were more likely than dogs to be allowed in the bedroom and on the bed.
• If they were allowed in the bedroom, dogs had 57% chance of being allowed onto the bed.
• Some of the pets snored: 21% of dogs and 7% of cats.
• Only 1% of patients felt their sleep was disrupted for more than 20 minutes per night on average.
Whether pet owners were really up-front about their pets' habits, he's not sure - but he says he suspects the problem may be far worse than owners admit. "Some people are very attached to their pets and will tolerate poorer sleep in order to be near them at night," he says.
But the problem may be not the animal's habits - but the animal itself, says Max Hirshkowitz, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and medicine and director of the Sleep Disorder and Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and the Veterans Administration Hospital in Houston.
Very often, it's an allergic reaction to cat dander that's causing the human to wake up, he tells WebMD. "[The allergy] may be causing a breathing problem, but people don't realize it. Cats have lots of dander. People may not feel any reaction when the cat is just in the house, but when it's in the same bed, near you for hours and hours, that makes the reaction worse."
Animal allergies are indeed a big cause of humans' sleep problems, says Richard Castriotta, MD, a sleep disorders expert at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. His study of 800 patients with sleep disorders found that 53% were suffering from allergies.
If allergies are the problem, "it's an easy thing to fix," he says. "Get the animal out of the room."
After all, allergy medication won't help you sleep any better if the pet is still on the bed, says Badar Syed, a neurologist and co-director of sleep disorders center at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. "If the pet continues sleeping with them, they're still going to wake up."
"I see it all the time in my clinic," Syed tells WebMD. "People describe sleep disturbance because of pets, but they don't realize exactly what's happening."
Nevertheless, if Fluffy or Fido continues to disrupt your sleep, you need to do something about it. "Chronic sleep deprivation is major problem in our society," says Syed. "It causes serious daytime sleepiness and increased risk of motor vehicle accidents. The latest data shows that more people die sleeping behind wheel than from drinking and driving."
Sleep disruption also affects memory, concentration, and work performance, he says. "It's a vicious cycle."
If you don't have pet allergies - if the animal is simply bugging you too much - "get a bigger bed," advises Castriotta. Many people just live with it. "Some people just adapt to the sleep disruptions and consider that to be totally normal."
Originally published Feb. 21, 2002.
By_Jeanie Lerche_Davis
© 2002 WebMD Inc. All rights reserved.
Reply With Quote
So if I climb in with her, she gets down and howls at the ceiling again. She does this several times a night, for about half hour at a time. It's SO frustrating, and I really wish I knew how to make her stop.
Bookmarks